Sumitomo Group Public Affairs Committee recently supported The 78th Speech Contest of The Schools for the Blind (hosted by Mainichi Newspaper Co., Ltd. Tenji Mainichi) held on Oct. 16th, 2009 at the Tokyo Metropolitan Bunkyo School for the Blind. This speech contest has marked its 78th anniversary, having observed the tradition since its establishment in 1928. Nine blind student representatives emerged from 69 schools in seven districts from all over Japan, after winning their elimination contests. They delivered impassioned speeches, describing in their own words their future dreams, their purpose in life and ordinary feelings as they competed for the championship flag from the Ministry of Education and Science and the Tenji Mainichi Cup.

The winner of this contest, which was a fierce battle full of impressive speeches, was Pham Van Son (Special Needs Education School for the Visually Impaired, University of Tsukuba), the delegate from the Kanto Koshinetsu region. With his speech, titled “For the students after me.”, he talked about his dream of “Building a school for the blind in his home country, Vietnam, to help blind people become independent”. He touched the audience with his goal and a strong vocation for making it a reality in Vietnam in the future after acquiring skills and education in Japan. His thought, “Accomplish something for people”, was tenderly appreciated by the audience.

It wasn‘t only the real meaning of each of the contestants‘ words, but also the audience could see the feelings and passion behind them that they used which were very soulful. There was so much inspiration from the contestants‘ words in the competition.

Based on its Group statement, “Passing important values from people to people,” the Sumitomo Group Public Affairs Committee will continue to support the Speech Contest of the Schools for the Blind out of a sincere wish to help people to convey their thoughts and ideas through words.